We spend the night with the new Gears of War mode Annex, as well as the new …

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After an announcement and then a retraction, price debates on the new maps and the resulting turmoil, the dust has settled, and Gears of War has received a fresh patch and a new game mode with a map pack on its way in the near future. I've mentioned a few times now how I thought Gears was getting a little stale, so I had high hopes this new content would rekindle my love for last year's 360 killer app. I spent a few hours last night playing with the new game-type (and bug fixes), and I've got to say that there's some great new game play to be found in Annex, and some of the bug fixes address longstanding issues that will go a long way towards improving the balance of certain weapons. Above all, for those of us that fantasized about the carnage of Gears with respawns, all our dreams have been finally answered.

The free update (which is mostly just a patch) includes one new game mode—entitled "Annex"—and a variety of fixes that users have been anxious to get. For me, the VGA fix was the biggest of the included updates, as the ugly low-res image of the game that was output on my monitor in light of the 1280x1024 issues rendered the game almost unplayable.

The game play fixes tweak the balance and use of a few of the guns, as well as adding the ability for all players to grab the special weapons in "Assassination" mode. Most notably, the Boomshot has undergone some drastic changes. The additional splash damage and increased radius of effectiveness alters the previously difficult-to-use rocket railgun into a more traditional rocket launcher capable of some incredible carnage without anywhere near the unreasonable precision previously necessary to hit anything. The gun is still restricted to two shots, but the two shots will now likely be of much more value to a team; much in the same way that the sniper rifle is often the tide-turning team bolster, the boomshot is now on equally powerful footing. The Hammer of Dawn also supposedly underwent changes, though tests that I did over the course of the night revealed no noteworthy differences.

As for the exploit fixes, I didn't really see anything last night that I hadn't seen before, but I also didn't note or hear about any missing glitches. Only longer play with the new patch will reveal whether or not the various glitches—like roadie-run aiming, sliding weapon pick-ups and so forth—have been put to rest. Something tells me such a miraculous improvement isn't to be found here, though. Glitchers have a way to consistently circumvent the normal method of play, so I wouldn't hold out hope for new and improved, glitch-free gaming.

And what of the refreshing new game mode "Annex"? Well, as many people have concluded, the new mode is indeed essentially "King of the Hill." Teams are required to capture and hold critical points on the map while defending said points from the enemy. The longer you can hold a point, the more points you get and the team with the most points wins (either after a given amount of time or after a set amount of points). The big change here is respawns. The other modes in Gears are bound by a single, unifying rule: you die, you're done for the round. The introduction of respawns, as well as objective-based gameplay, has totally transformed the Gears experience. The objective creates a purpose previously unseen in the game, giving the Cogs and the Locust alike something to shoot for. The devs craftily mapped each "capture zone" on top of the pre-existing weapon drop locations, so all the maps have an already-established level of refined balance. Surprisingly, whether played with two people or eight, this mode manages to exponentially increase the fun of the game, while keeping you constantly in the action.

Ultimately, the bevy of fixes is nice but hardly noticeable (minus the VGA and Boomshot issues). That said, the new mode has completely captured my interest. No longer will I sit on the sidelines and wait for the other team to win: I'm constantly thrust back into the fray, and it's a war that was never so vicious. If you're at all interested, pop the game in and get the free update. Chances are it will either continue to fuel your love for Epic's epic, or remind you of why Gears of War is one of the marquee titles of this current generation of consoles.